The Honourable Dwight Ball, Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador, today announced that Avalon Healthcare Partnership has been selected to design, build, finance and maintain a new adult mental health and addictions hospital in St. John’s.

The project includes:

• A 240,000 square foot, six-storey, 102-bed hospital;
• A parking garage with space for 1,000 vehicles; and,
• A new 60-bed hostel to replace the Agnes Cowan Hostel.

The design of the new hospital can be viewed on YouTube.

Early site work and demolition of the Agnes Cowan Hostel will start in the coming weeks and continue throughout the fall to make way for construction of the hospital beginning next spring.

Construction on the parking garage will start this fall and will be completed in late 2021. Construction of the hospital will be completed in late 2024.

The estimated net present value of the new hospital contract is $330 million.

During the construction phase, Avalon Healthcare Partnership will:

• Host a job fair for skilled labourers looking to work on the construction;
• Develop an apprenticeship training program for local apprentices; and
• Develop a plan to assist with hiring tradeswomen to work on the construction site.

Over the course of construction, more than 400 jobs are expected to be created. More details on Avalon Healthcare Partnership can be found in the backgrounder below.

In The Way Forward: A Vision for Sustainability and Growth in Newfoundland and Labrador, the Provincial Government committed to transform the way mental health and addictions services are delivered. The province continues to support this vision through the implementation of Towards Recovery: The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador.

A new mental health and addictions hospital is just the latest initiative that the Provincial Government has undertaken in recent years. In just a few short years, government has:

• Reduced wait times for counselling services;
• Made Doorways available in 60 locations province-wide;
• Made Doorways available in all of the province’s correctional facilities;
• Increased spending in mental health and addictions;
• Launched mobile crisis teams;
• Opened Opioid Dependency Treatment hubs in all four regions of the province;
• Expanded Bridge the gapp and the province’s range of e-mental health services;
• Announced plans to replace Her Majesty’s Penitentiary with a new 21,000 square metre state-of-the-art correctional facility in St. John’s; and,
• Expanded community-based services for those wishing to receive support closer to home.

Quotes
“Mental health, and this particular project, has been a passion of mine from day one, and a priority for my government since we won the 2015 election. Right from the start, our intention was clear – we had to change how mental health and addictions services and supports were provided to the people of this province. A key aspect of this change involves eliminating stigma, which is only possible through a new, person-centered, recovery-oriented approach to mental health and substance use. This approach focuses on better community services, enhanced training for medical professionals and first responders, and a new, modern hospital to serve people.”
Honourable Dwight Ball
Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador

“This new hospital is one of many construction projects creating good construction jobs for Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. Local companies that have participated in our business-to-business sessions with the Newfoundland and Labrador Construction Association and we look forward to seeing more local companies working on the construction of this hospital and the new correctional facility next year.”
Honourable Steve Crocker
Minister of Transportation and Works

“Today marks a major step forward on the province’s new adult mental health and addictions hospital. We look forward to continuing discussions with Eastern Health, health care providers, persons with lived experience and their families, community-based agencies and organizations, members on the Recovery Council and the Mental Health and Addictions Advisory Council, and the public to move this project forward. As part of Towards Recovery, this hospital demonstrates our unwavering commitment to design a better mental health and addictions system with early intervention supports and care provided in the community and when needed, a modern, state-of-the-art facility with recovery focused inpatient programming.”
Honourable John Haggie
Minister of Health and Community Services

“Today is an important day as Eastern Health and its partners move forward in building the new adult mental health and addictions facility which will provide high quality, recovery-oriented, person-centered mental health care. The new facility is the culmination of years of hard work and dedication and would not have been possible without very important partnerships – between people with lived experience, community partners, Eastern Health, and the Provincial Government.”
David Diamond
President and CEO, Eastern Health

“In the unprecedented time we are living in and with a future so uncertain, it is comforting to know that The Way Forward has not changed. The COVID-19 world crisis has reminded us that we all have mental health and that our mental health can be compromised at any time. Today’s announcement advances the commitment made by this government to the over 175,000 Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who live with mental health and addictions issues and their families. It shows that we do matter, that mental health matters. We are one step closer to a future that we’ve all dreamed of – where our mental health is as important as our physical health, where health is health.”
Paula Corcoran
Executive Director, CHANNAL

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Learn more
Video of New Adult Mental Health and Addictions Hospital

Towards Recovery: The Mental Health and Addictions Action Plan for Newfoundland and Labrador

Follow us on Twitter @GovNL, @TW_GovNL and @HCS_GovNL

Media contacts
Jeremy Reynolds
Office of the Premier
709-729-3558
jeremyreynolds@gov.nl.ca

Emily Gillingham
Transportation and Works
709-729-1758, 730-4607
emilygillingham@gov.nl.ca

Kathy Dicks-Peyton
Health and Community Services
709-729-6986, 699-1982
KathyDicksPeyton@gov.nl.ca

Tracey Boland
Eastern Health
709-777-1412, 730-7759
TraceyL.Boland@easternhealth.ca

Paula Corcoran
CHANNAL
709-753-1138
pjacobs@channal.ca

BACKGROUNDER

Avalon Healthcare Partnership is a partnership consisting of 13 companies.

Company	Role
Plenary Americas LP	Respondent Team Lead Equity Provider
Marco Group Limited	Design-Builder
G.J. Cahill (1979) Limited	Service Provider & Design Builder
B+H Architects Inc.	Design Lead
John Hearn Architect Ltd.	Local Design Consultant
Smith and Andersen Consulting Engineering	Mechanical and Electrical Design Consultant
R.V. Anderson Associates Ltd.	Civil Design Consultant
Entuitive	Structural Design Consultant
S+A Footprint	Energy and Sustainability Consultant
Rowan, Williams, Davies & Irwin Inc.	Acoustics and Vibration Design Consultant
BA Group Consulting Group Ltd	Traffic Design Consultant
Mills & Wright Landscape Architecture Inc	Landscape Design Consultant
Newton Group Ltd.	Parking Garage Design-Builder